about · the story so far
i'm ashley. i said fuck it and moved to japan.
not "spent a semester abroad once." moved here, changed visas twice, found the apartment, opened the bank account, enrolled in language school, got the startup job. every page on this site is something i navigated first.
the field notes, chronologically
born and raised. the japan obsession came first as a dream, then as a plan with a spreadsheet.
moved to japan to teach english at an eikaiwa. the classic first chapter and, like most people's, a short one.
quit teaching about six months in to bet on myself: freelance content, ugc, and digital marketing work, visa clock ticking.
cnbc make it filmed my move-to-japan story. over a million people watched it. the comments section became my content roadmap: everyone had the same questions.
a tokyo ai startup found me through that visibility and cold-emailed. i now run marketing there. the work visa chapter, in progress.
enrolled at a tokyo language school, currently working around n3, because building a life here means speaking the language it runs in.
a 2dk in kanagawa, a train commute, school in the morning, startup in the afternoon, and this site: the resource i needed and couldn't find, built one field note at a time.
why this site exists
a million people watched my story. they all asked the same questions.
how did you get the visa? how much does it cost? how did you find an apartment? this site is the answer i couldn't fit in a comment reply: interactive tools instead of vague advice, real numbers instead of "it depends."